The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay, or TPB, is a controversial file sharing website that originated in Sweden in 2001. It was started by Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij , who led the anti-copyright group Piratbyrån (The Piracy Bureau), in order to provide an open peer-to-peer file sharing network.The Pirate Bay was hosted by PRQ, a Sweden-based company which was considered to be a secure, no-questions-asked hosting service to its customers, allowing people to freely download from them. The organization’s logo includes a three-masted ship with the Home Taping is Killing Music image from the 1980s anti-piracy campaign, which openly symbolizes their commitment to media sharing and anti-copyright practices. How it Works There is no login required to start accessing files, and TPB has made the website relatively easy to navigate for new users. TPB initially facilitated file exchange through BitTorrent protocol, which involved users downloading torrent files that contained metadata about other files. A Torrent File does not contain the content that is to be dowloaded, but only information about thos files like their size, names, or cryptographic hash values which verify their file integrity. As of February 20, 2012, the organization announced that they would no longer use torrent files (unless being accessed by fewer than ten users), and instead began using magnetic links. This shift in format was beneficial in that it saved TPB money and made the process less accessible by “enemies”, while allowing users to search for files based on content rather than location. These files are separated based on category including: audio, applications, video, games, porn, other, and recently physibles, which are formatted for 3D printers. The website has become so popular that it was once the 98th most visited website on the internet, although it is often suspended and inaccessible because of the illegal practices it fosters. Controversy Because TPB allows users free access to downloadable media, it has been the source of much legal scrutiny and controversy. It allows internet users to forgo paying for media use and therefore break copyright laws, making film, music, and other industries view TPB as a threat to their profits. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) have specifically targeted TPB and worked to shut down their operations. Legal Action On May 31, 2006, TPB headquarters were raided by police investigating copyright infringement. Their servers were seized and three people including Gottfrid Svartholm, Mikael Viborg, and Fredrik Neij were brought in for questioning, forcing TPB offline for three days. Following the raid, the MPAA released a statement saying, “Since filing a criminal complaint in Sweden in November 2004, the film industry has worked vigorously with Swedish and U.S. government officials in Sweden to shut this illegal website down,” and also said th at, “Intellectual property theft is a problem for film industries all over the world and we are glad that the local government in Sweden has helped stop The Pirate Bay from continuing to enable rampant copyright theft on the Internet." This is just one example of many legal complications TPB has faced, including being blocked from multiple countries including: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, China, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Most recently, in 2008 site administrators were charged with copyright infringement and forced to pay a $13 million fine, reiterating their actions as illegal even in the realm of the internet (Furlin). Although TPB does not profit from their illegal downloads, and many see them as simply encouraging sharing rather than stealing, the website still promotes copyright law infringement and piracy which are illegal practices.